Mount Meru

Mount Meru rises to 4,566 m (14,980 ft) inside Arusha National Park, an hour from Arusha town. It is Tanzania's second-highest mountain and one of Africa's highest, yet it sees a fraction of Kilimanjaro's traffic. The climb starts at Momella Gate and follows a narrow volcanic ridge to Socialist Peak, with the ash cone falling away on one side and the crater floor 1,500 m below on the other.

Why climb it

Meru is the finest preparation for Kilimanjaro there is. Four days on the mountain takes you to 4,566 m — high enough that a subsequent Kilimanjaro summit is markedly more comfortable — and the terrain is more varied than anything on the Kilimanjaro routes. Climbed on its own, it is a serious mountain with one of the great summit ridges in East Africa.

The Momella Route

The only route to the summit. Day one climbs through montane forest to Miriakamba Hut at 2,500 m, day two through heather and moorland to Saddle Hut at 3,570 m, with an optional afternoon walk up Little Meru (3,820 m) to help you acclimatise. The summit push leaves around midnight along the crater rim, reaching Socialist Peak for sunrise over Kilimanjaro.

Walking with an armed ranger

Arusha National Park is full of buffalo, giraffe and elephant, and the lower forest is genuinely wild. A park ranger walks with every group on the first day — not a formality but a requirement, and one of the reasons the first few hours feel more like a game walk than a trek.

Huts, not tents

Meru is climbed hut to hut. Miriakamba and Saddle are simple bunkhouses with mattresses and a dining hut, which keeps the packs light and makes the mountain viable in the wetter months when camping is miserable.